Wizards' Test

Resource: Short-event

Spell. Wizard only, and only if a character in his company has a Gold Ring. Play to test a gold ring; make two rolls (or draw two #s) and choose one result to use for the test. Wizard makes a corruption check modified by -1.

There are two main uses to this card, and only two slight weaknesses. First the uses. One of them is for testing rings when you don't want to go to an Information site to use Ringlore (or when you have one conveniently in hand when you get the ring). This, of course, is the basic use of testing cards. This one has an advantage, though - its double rolls. Especially if you combine this with Scroll of Isildur (though one rules question: does the scroll count on both rolls or only one?), which gives you +2 to a roll (handy unless you're playing a Magic Ring, in which case it's exactly the thing you DON'T want, since low rolls are good for those).

In general, though, this card's good, because it doubles the probability of getting the roll you want. Of course, to me, the second use is the better one, getting out The One Ring. This cannot be done with Ringlore, which I would recommend over this test otherwise. But The One Ring needs this card to be brought out.

This card makes the probability pretty good (I didn't want to spend the time to calculate the exact ones, with so many people willing to do it already) for The One Ring, good enough to make it an even more useful card than it already is. Finally, this card is great with Saruman, who can recycle spells just by tapping, because it virtually gives him Gandalf's ability in addition to his own (except it's -1 instead of +1 to corruption checks).

There are, as in most cards, a few problems with this one. The first is the "Wizard only" line. Though the best card to play this with (Saruman) is a wizard anyway, there are many companies that don't have Wizards and players who don't like exposing theirs. Also, with the main use of this card, bringing out The One Ring, there will be lots of opportunities for corruption (automatic 1 pt. for all characters in company, plus lots more if you try to destroy it) which could destroy your Wizard and remove you from the game. Plus, there is the -1 corruption check, a relatively minor amount but still significant. Overall, this card is the second best way to test rings next to Ringlore, and the best for testing The One Ring.

Ratings for: Wizard's Test

Rater	Rating
Gandalf	8.5
Turin	7.5
Shadowfax	5.5
Morgoth	8.5
Cirdan	7.0
Ilsidur	5.0
Elrond	6.0
Radagast	10.0
Beren	10.0
Eru	6.0
Average	7.4

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